Unreal v1.01 update patch is now
available! This update allows players to join multiplayer games by clicking on links to
"*.unreal" files from their web browser.

".unreal" files are simple
ini files which tell the player's machine the location and port the server is running on.
Links work in both MS Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator (v2.0 and above).

".unreal" files are simple
2 line INI files. They should look like this:

[UnreaLaunch]
Server=address.of.server.com:portnumber

You can specify a server using either
its hostname or an IP address. The port number is optional. Examples shown below:

[UnreaLaunch]
Server=server.unreal.com:7777

or
[UnreaLaunch]
Server=208.212.53.37

will both launch to the same server.

Next-Gen's Unreal Award [10:49 PM EDT]Next
Generation Online's Unreal Review is already up, and they are so crazy about it they
cooked up an Editor's Choice award just so they could give it one.

More Sin Art [9:00 PM EDT]Phoebus has come up with another Sin-ful GoodieTM on HardCorps SiN News in
the form of yet more Sin artwork suitable for wallpaper, in both 1024x728 and 800x600
resolutions.

Wide World o' Games (Updated)

Warcraft Adventures
Cancelled [7:17 PM
EDT]Word up GameSpot News is
that Warcraft
Adventures have been Axed by Blizzardsaying "While this has been an extremely
difficult decision, we firmly believe that we cannot release a title that does not meet
the exceptionally high standards that both we and our customers expect from the Blizzard
label."

Babbage's Sponsors CPL [7:17 PM EDT]The CPL has announced
that Babbage's has become a sponsor of the Cyberathlete Professional League, and
Babbages will also become the key sponsor of the upcoming QuakeCon CPL tournament,
starting July 23-26.

Sample Unreal Map for
Authors [6:07 PM
EDT]Unreal Level Designer T. Elliot Cannon, AKA Myscha the Sled Dog, sent
along a sample map
(43 KB) that aspiring editing types can dissect in UnrealEd (included with the game) to
get a handle on Unreal editing. Though the map isn't meant to play, it provides examples
of the following:

basic player start no multiplayer
starts

example of skybox and skybox zone info
actor

example of water zone

example of volumetric fog used in low
poly water zone

example of biter fish school-tagged as
nonaggressive

example of fire engine or ART flame
torch holder in simple form

example of colored lighting to reflect
environment colors in a subtle fashion

example of PathNode placement- for AI
creature navigation

example of Skaarj bhatewhentriggered
orders set on a trigger surrounding a weapon

example of ambient sound effect
placement and values typically used

example of ambient sounds attached to
light actors

example of Nali "ambushing"
orders which makes nali levitate and pray

example of basic texture alignment.
Some textures have been rescaled in X or Y direction to better convey the geometry

example of Fireengine WET texture used
at surface of water.

Daikatana Weapons
(Including the Big D)
[6:07 PM EDT]The fourth armory of Daikatana weapons are up on the ION Storm site showing off the weapons
that will be seen at E3 from the third (medieval) episode of the game, as well as the
Daikatana itself. The other implements of destruction on display are the Silverclaw, the
Bolter, Stavros' Stave (Kojak fans?), and Nharres Nightmare. The Daikatana is
described like this:

The Daikatana gains strength as the
game progresses. The sword has a maximum of 6 power levels that are attained only by
vanquishing enough enemies with the sword to gain levels.

Daikatana Chat [6:07 PM EDT]The log for last night's Daikatana Cabana chat with the ION guys is up on StormTroopers.

The Unseen: Not a Q2
Mission Pack [4:34
PM EDT - Update]Since posting this story about the Quake 2 Mission Pack Unseen, I've found out
that this is not an authorized mission pack, learning from id CEO Todd Hollenshead that
this is the first he's heard of it. Since calling a product a Quake II Mission Pack
without authorization from id is copyright infringement, and Tequila Sunstorm, the team
making the project, has informed me that the name will probably be changed. According to
Tequila Sunstorm, the project is to be published by One Stop, a UK division of GT
Interactive, and I've asked them for a comment, but the time difference makes me think it
will be a while before I hear from them.

John Carmack's Unreal
Review [3:42 PM EDT]Okay, I'm just kidding, it's not a review, but Mr. Carmack did post a
reaction in his .plan:

Q2 Mission Packs 1
and 2 & Q264 at E3 [3:24 PM EDT]I just confirmed with Phoebus over at Activision that they will be showing off both
Quake II Mission Packs 1 & 2 from Xatrix and Rogue respectively, as well as Quake II
for the N64 at E3 in Atlanta next week.

Quake
II Mission Pack: The Unseen [12:50 PM EDT]
I've seen no word of this from GT Interactive, or anywhere else, but according to the Quake 2 Mission Pack Unseen page, this
project, described as offering 12 new weapons, eight new enemies, four new bosses, 13
single player levels, and 15 new deathmatch levels, is going to be published by GT
Interactive.

Stroggs Gone Mad [12:50 PM EDT]Version 1.2.01 of legion's
Stroggs Gone Mad patch is now available. SGM enhances the Quake II single-player
experience by beefing up the enemy AI, giving them bot-like routes through the levels.
There are also a few more pre-calculated route files available of download on the SGM
page.

Front-end Mania [12:50 PM EDT]An alpha version of the ToolKit is up on GSLogMod page basically providing the
source of their logging mods. Also, version 0.4 of MOTD Edit, a message of the Day
program, is up on the QNM page. This program
sounds like a boon to server ops, providing some neat features, including mouse support,
and also completely interfaces with the new Viking Control Panel version 0.98.02 (as does
the Quake Name Maker), now available on the Stormtroopers Of
Death Network. The Viking Front-end is a Windows 95/NT front-end for the Viking Mod
version 0.98 created by SGT-D, who is now the maintainer of the Viking mod as well..

Quake II 3.15 Correction
(Next Friday) [11:25
AM EDT - Update]I originally messed this up: The Reckoning is not due on shelves
today, but next Friday. Sorry about causing confusion. Here's the deal: In our
conversation on QuakeCast last night, Zoid made
an interesting revelation: the updated QuakeII 3.15 is the version included in the Quake
II mission pack, the Reckoning, which Kevin from Activision tells me will be on shelves as
early as next Friday. Zoid says that 3.15, in testing for over a month now, is done, and
that the current tests are making sure everything is set with the installer to patch
existing versions. That installer they are testing should be available "soon."

Blood 2 Update [9:16 AM EDT]Weekly update #5 is up on Monolith's Blood 2 Site with some
screenshots showing off some of the clever aspects of the game's interface and menu system
they've cooked up, as well as a bonus shot of the game's spellbook. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

More Nocturne & FLY!
Screenshots [9:16 AM
EDT]Today's GameSlice
editorial has new screenshots from the two new games from TRI, offering three new
spooky dark shadowy screenshots from Nocturne, and 2 fly new jobbies from FLY!

Quake State [9:16 AM EDT]Meant to mention yesterday that Anders, ex-mate of Wicked and Sharky and the rest
of the inmates over at VE has completed a move
to the AVault where they are now the home to his Quake State article that
gives the lowdown on running Quake on lots of different hardware setups.

Socket X [9:16 AM EDT]A bootNet
blurb gives more details about Micron's & Rendition's just announced joint project
on a graphics architecture called Socket X that will allow system manufacturers to plug
different choices of graphics chips directly into the motherboard, without re-engineering
the whole shebang.

Sticker Shock at Tom's [9:16 AM EDT]Tom's Hardware Guide has a
follow-up to yesterday's post about starting a pay are of his website, saying that the
plan is misunderstood, declaring that this will only make the free area better.

Unrealistic CD Promise [2:37 AM EDT]Epic MegaGames' Tim Sweeney dropped a line to admit that his statement
that Unreal would not have copy protection was, well, unrealistic. Here's what he had to
say:

After I went online and said
"Unreal will not require the CD in the drive to play", the vast majority of my
coworkers at Epic, Digital Extremes, and GT came to me saying they felt that was a bad
idea. After a lot of debate, their continued reasoning turned me to the Dark Side.
So, the retail Unreal does a CD-check at startup. This doesn't prevent
listening to CD's while playing (you can do that after the CD check), or installing
multiple copies for LAN play, and passing the CD around at startup, but it does mean you
need to have stick the CD in the drive before startup.

I appoligize for speaking too soon on
this issue, and saying what turned out to be untrue. That was lame, and I'm sorry.

Unreal Shareware Status [2:37 AM EDT]Here's the latest on the status of the Unreal shareware, according to some
statements on IRC and an Unreal
MegaBoard post by Mark Rein (seen on Voodoo
Extreme):

Unfortunately I think Tim forgot that
early next week is E3. Because of other things we have to do for the retail release,
including French, Italian, German and Spanish versions, and the fact that we're all
leaving for E3 early next week, there is no way Unreal Shareware can be released before
E3. It's not fair to our publisher to leave these whole countries waiting while we work on
the shareware. It will be sometime after E3. When we know the exact date we'll let you
guys know. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

GameSpy 2.0 - Unreal
Support [2:37 AM
EDT]Mark "Bastard" Surfas made a
.plan update revealing that GameSpy 2.0 should be released tonight or tomorrow
featuring Unreal support. They are also running some Unreal servers over at Bastage's
House of Pancakes, if you have the game and are looking for a deathmatch.

Sin and Win [2:37 AM EDT]There's a contest up on Activision's
Sin page that can win you a Pure 3D: they're holding a drawing a week, with Sin
baseball caps to be won as well. Thanks Lorien at PsychoNews.

ThunderWalker II [2:37 AM EDT]Version 1.62 of ThunderWalker CTF is up on ThunderWalker CTF's House of Fixins, as both new
client and a new server files, fixing the "screwed up pak6.pak."

Quake Name Maker [2:37 AM EDT]Version 1.01 of the Quake Name Maker
is out, offering a fix to one small bug and a couple of installer issues found in the 1.0
release of this fun name creation program for Quake.

Front-end [2:37 AM EDT]Version 1.50 of the Eraser Bot
Launcher is now available adding dozens of fixes and enhancements.

Recoil Preview [2:37 AM EDT]GameSpot's
preview of Recoil takes an look at this upcoming 3D action title from Zipper
Interactive that puts you in the command of a tank called the BFT (nope, that's what I
thought too, but they say it's a Battle Force Tank).

Out of the BlueA couple of comments on the time stamps wondered why they are so darn big.
The answer is that they are not supposed to be, but there may be some combination of
browser/OS setups and font tags that have caused a result I haven't foreseen, so if you
are experiencing oddly large timestamps, and feel like helping work it out, feel free to
drop me a line with as many details about your setup as you can include (including which,
if any, of the Verdana, Helvetica, or Arial fonts you have installed), and I'll try and
figure out where the problem lies (call it a bug fix). Update - after a few responses I
changed the tag, and suspect it will work properly now. Can anyone who was having the
problem before tell me if it's fixed?

Thursday, May 21,
1998

GameTime[6:41 PM EDT]For your Real audio and video pleasure,
GameTime, tonight on the All Games Network
converses with Billy Wilson from Voodoo Extreme,
as part of their 3D Thursday (followed by QuakeCast...
oops, look at the time... gotta run!).

Another
I'82 Interview[5:32
PM EDT]Another Zack Norman
Interstate 82 Interview is out, this one on Gamesmania,
talking more about the sequel to Interstate '76. Thanks Turambar.
This gives me an opportunity to correct an error in my initial reporting of yesterday's I'82 interview, which was
also with Zack, not Joe McCloud as I said at first: Joe is the Games.Net editor who did
the interview (doh!).

Pure3D II
Bundle Update[5:32
PM EDT]A discrepancy in the info posted in the scoop posted earlier predicting the inclusion of the Quake II
mission pack, The Reckoning with the Pure 3D II bundle, and the official
announcement, is that those who have already received their Pure 3D II cards will
automatically receive the game via priority mail, and will not have to call in. Thanks Buzzman for pointing that out.

QuakeCast[4:28 PM EDT]Tonight on the QuakeCast, Joost
Loony, and I will be speaking with Jason McIntosh of the Nightfall Quake II project, John
'Hal 9000' Schuch of Uberfest, and id's own Zoid to
chat about about QuakeWorld 2.2+, Quake II 3.15, CTF and other Zoidly matters. The
festivities, as always, kick off at 8:00 PM Eastern time, and yes, RealPlayer is required.

.plans[4:28 PM EDT]3D Realms' Chris Johnson has the link of the day posted
in his .plan showing that video games provide a service (paraphrased
quote of the day from Mr. Hand: "What are you people... on dopamine?"). Also
R.I.P. to Zeus, who sounds like he was an interesting little guy while he was around.
Condolences to Eric Biessman who has Zeus's story in his .plan. I wanted to make sure all the racing news
was in (there are usually so many updates for these) before mentioning the recent day at
the races for the Dallas gaming scene. Here's host John
Carmack's update, as well as updates from Disruptor,
Brian
Hook, and Scott Miller (though now I think I must have missed one or two).

PlanetUnreal[4:28 PM EDT]Was it just yesterday that I made a joke about PlanetRebelBoatRocker?
(Nope, I just checked, it was Tuesday.) Well, all kidding aside, the boys at PlanetQuake are cooking up another corner of their
universe: PlanetUnreal, slated to launch
tomorrow (I'm beginning to suspect I know where the UNA guys, who recently announced their
closing may end up).

Tom for
Pay?[4:28 PM
EDT]In an interesting development in the area of web-based information
services, a post on Tom's Hardware Guide
suggests that some parts of Tom's famed resource are going to become pay services.

Shogo Level
Design Contest[3:33
PM EDT]Monolith is offering the opportunity for those with editing skills or
aspirations to create a level to be included in the shipping version of Shogo: Mobile
Armor Division:

Monolith is holding a
Shogo level design contest! Be one of the winners and your level will be shipped along
with the full version of Shogo: Mobile Armor Division! In addition, you will also win a
bunch of awesome prizes like a 12 MB Voodoo2 and a signed copy of Shogo! Winning levels
will be included in Shogo with full credit to the designer

- Download the LithTech
Engine demo:
The LithTech Editor you will use to create your winning level is part of the LithTech
Engine demo. The LithTech Engine demo is available at http://www.lithtech.com.
Be sure to follow all of the instructions carefully so that you can properly run the
Editor.

ION &
NovaLogic's E3 Plans[3:33
PM EDT]The
Adrenaline Vault has a report on ION's E3 plans which are to showcase Dominion:
Storm Over Gift3, and Daikatana (thanks LaRd of the Quake Workshop 2). Also OGR is reporting NovaLogic's
E3 line-up, which naturally consists of a pair of flight-sims, but also will include Delta
Force, described as a ground-based action game with real-time combat simulation
features.

Two New TRI
Games Announced[2:56
PM EDT]Gathering of Developers and Terminal Reality, Inc. (g.o.d. and TRI) have
announced a pair of games to be developed by TRI and released by g.o.d. First up is FLY!,
one of those hyper-realistic flight games with air traffic controllers and flight plans
and stuff, and the other is Nocturne, a 19th century Lovecraftian adventure mystery where
you hunt ghosts vampires and Zombies (where's Karl Kolchak when you need him?). The lads
at OGR have already got the goods on these with some
truly impressive photographic-looking screenshots of FLY!, and some really dark shots of
Nocturne showing off some impressive light and shadow techniques in their story of the announcement.

Sin
Wallpaper[2:56
PM EDT]HardCorps
SiN News has a Sin-ful GoodieTM for anyone "feeling'
kinda blue today" (that would be me every day!) in the form of a desktop wallpaper in
both 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions.

Unreal
Cheat Codes[2:31
PM EDT]Without the game, I can't verify these. but since I've seen reports of
Unreal already appearing on shelves (surprising, but not altogether impossible, I
suppose), I can't resist the opportunity to provide a little scoop with these (hopefully
accurate) cheat codes from Unreal,
passed along by Dale Rector. To use the codes,
hit <TAB>, enter the code, and hit <Enter>. I posted them on a separate page
after someone (quite correctly) pointed out as a spoiler it should be your choice whether
you peek or not. Sorry about that.

PowerVR,
Sega, MS Console[9:59
AM EDT]PowerVR has finally officially
announced their partnership with Sega to supply PowerVR Second-Generation technology for
Sega's next-generation consoles in this
press release. Thanks Warlock. The partnership
will result in the Dreamcast console system, set for release in Japan in November 1998,
and in the rest of the world in 1999, as described in this NewsWire
Article (thanks Lorien at PhychoNews), which also describes Microsoft's involvement in
the project. MS is to to provide an optimized version of Microsoft Windows CE with
integrated DirectX as the operating system for use with Dreamcast.

More E3
Coverage [9:59
AM EDT]More on E3 from today's
GameSlice editorial talking more about what's going to be shown off there, and Gibbed @ E3 is all set to bring you their on-the-spot
coverage from Atlanta.

Freespace
Demo Patch [4:05
AM EDT]Volition has released a patch
for the playable Descent: Freespace demo that fixes a bunch of bugs and adds additional
hardware support. Thanks Voodoo Extreme.

Quake/Quake II Mods

Energy
Quake [4:05 AM
EDT]Now available is a new version 1.1 of Energy Quake, a server-only Quake II mod where the
goal is to transport energy cells to the end of the map, losing energy to attacks along
the way.

Linux ST
Weapons Factory [4:05 AM EDT]A Linux Version of ST
Weapons Factory for Quake II is out, and a beta Linux server is up at 208.216.222.254.
Thanks Prophet.

Chat and More ChatTwo new chat sessions today and the aftermath of yesterday's (today is the
QuakeCast, as well):

Daikatana Cabana Chat [4:05 AM EDT]Tonight at 8:00 PM Central time (9:00 Eastern), the Daikatana Cabana will be conducting an
online chat with the Daikatana team. The chat can be accessed through ION Storm's website, or by connecting an IRC client to
www.ionstorm.com, and going to channel #daikatana.

BattleZone Add-on News [4:05 AM EDT]Some tidbits about the BattleZone add-on Activision is currently working
on gleaned from the BZ chat yesterday are up on the BattleZone Ladder, where they hope to post
a log as soon as its available.

StoryTimeA couple of sites soliciting stories, of course, remember that The Quake Literary Guild is another great
source of gaming verbiage, if you feel like reading or writing some.

PicPage [4:05 AM EDT]Siren sends word that The
Pic Page is looking for submissions of stories to post, be it a tale of your favorite
frag, or an account of your favorite LAN party, stop on by and see how to send it in.

a virtual literary publishing house
for the Hexen Universe! Go there to browse, to read in-depth, and to submit YOUR
Heretic-Hexen inspired fantasies! This is truly a site that's FOR the HexenWorld
Community, BY the HexenWorld Community.

Bundles of JoyA couple of Voodoo2 card bundle updates:

Reckoning with a Pure3D II[4:05 AM EDT]Cyrellis 3D Games & Hardware is
reporting that Canopus and Activision will announce today that a copy of the Quake II
mission pack will be added to all Pure 3D II and Pure 3D II LX cards sold, with no price
increase. Customers who already have their cards will be able to call and get a copy of
the pack as well.

Monster 3D Truck Madness
[4:05 AM EDT]Diamond
Multimedia announced yesterday that Monster Truck Madness 2 has been added to the
bundle to ship with their 12 MB Monster 3D II. the bundle now includes Incoming (full),
Battle Zone (full), and Monster Truck Madness 2 (full). MTM2 is in stores now, by the way.

bootNet is running an Unreal poll. What's up with those choices? I
dare say that's not a scientific poll. I saw on Unreal
Nation that a poll on the front page of The
Adrenaline Vault asks the more innocuous "Will you buy Unreal when it is released
this weekend?"...

Don't forget the famed and feared East
Coast Caravan if you are making E3 travel arrangements. They also have other trips,
including purely social outings, planned for the future...

John Romero is quoted again in the current issue of Time Magazine on the
subject of scary monsters (in reference to Godzilla not Bowie). Thanks G.A. Thrawn of clan RAL...

Presenting the MorbidCam!
See Jack Mathews in action, creating 3Dfx ports, programming GameSpy, and fighting those
in the biz whose egos have grown too large...

Out of the BlueWow, I never would have imagined that there would be so much positive
feedback to the time stamps in each story (let's just call the response a flood). The
stamps are something that I decided against long ago (long story), but would have to say
are a keeper now given the response. Another change I'm playing with is just one day of
news on the current news page (initial reraction was displeased: it's back to two again
already). By the way, if it's been a while since I've mentioned my appreciation for the
encouraging email people take the time to send in, let me do so now, because it really is
greatly appreciated.

New WinAmp [8:38 PM EDT]Really pretty far afield of gaming, but I don't know many people who don't
use WinAmp, which is now up to version 1.91.
Thanks Randy Perry.

Wide World
of Gaming - Myth 1.3 [7:55 PM EDT - Updated]Saw on OGR that "Bungie announced the release of Myth: The Fallen Lords
version 1.3 patch," that makes the game completely customizable, but I see on AVault (as seen
on VE) the the patch isn't actually available,
but is in beta testing.

Unreal
Shareware Status [6:37 PM EDT]The Daily
Dementia at the MeccaWorld has the first report I've seen (or in this RealAudio case, heard) on the status of the Unreal
Shareware, which TC says will be available by the weekend according to a reliable source.
This episode of the Dementia features a parental warning for language, and features
interview victim Dave Taylor of Crack dot Com on Golgotha talking about everything from
the game's politically charged plot to what the game's name is about.

Sin
Deathmatch at UberFest [5:48 PM EDT]onethumb updated
his .plan with word that a sampling of Sin deathmatch is on the slate for attendees of
the UberFest in Atlanta concurrent with E3:

Woop, E3's just around
the corner...

Just got done working
out the details of Sin at UberFest -- looks like it's going to happen! That's right, if
you're going to UberFest, you'll get to take a good close look at the game and we'll
probably have a few quick "first to 5 frags" deathmatches. Should be very good.

If you aren't going, and
want to, check out my
plan update below. It's definitely going to be fun... whole bunch of
"industry" folks are coming (current lists include John Romero, Blue, Billy
Wilson of Voodoo Extreme, myself, and who knows who all else... it should be a blast).

More
Reckoning Screenshots [5:08 PM EDT]Kevin Kraff over at Activision sent along some screenshots from Xatrix's
just completed Quake II mission pack, the Reckoning, and while a few were from the ones posted on GameSpot earlier,
I'm pretty sure these three are new:

Daikatana's
E3 Deadlies [4:19
PM EDT]The ever more content-filled ION Storm website today offers up
screenshots of four bad guys, one from each of the game's four episodes, selected from the
bevy of over 20 baddies they plan on unveiling at E3 in Atlanta at the end of the month.
From episode one is the Rage Master, from the second episode, a Griffon, from the third
the Dardic Dwarf (no relation to Hank as far as I know), and finally, from episode four, a
Lab Monkey (no relation to Dr. Mephisto's assistant as far as I know).

Reckoning
Q2 Mission Pack Gold [3:55 PM EDT]id CEO Todd Hollenshead dropped a line to pass along word that the first
official Quake II mission pack, the
Reckoning, from Xatrix Entertainment, has been
mastered, has gone off to manufacture, and will be appearing on store shelves as soon as
they can get it out there.

Independence
War Preview [3:48
PM EDT]OGR has pumped out one of their giant
previews, this time taking
a look towards Independence War, an upcoming space-sim from Particle Systems based on
their European release from last year, I-War. The twist here compared to games like Wing
Commander Prophecy, is that you are piloting a dreadnought class spaceship (does size
matter?). The preview talks of stunning 3D graphics, and shows them off with a bunch of
screenshots, and also notes that Voodoo2 specific support is promised.

Shogo Chat
TonightA Shogo Online Chat is
being conducted this evening by Gamers-Zone.
The festivities kick off at 7:00 PM Eastern time in efnet IRC #gamers-zone.Email richard@gamers-zone.com if you have any
questions to contribute to their interview with the guys from Monolith about their
upcoming animé inspired 3D game.

Quake/Quake II Mods[12:45
PM EDT - Updated]

ThunderWalker
IIVersion 1.61 of ThunderWalker II for Quake II is out on ThunderWalker CTF's House of Fixins. The new
release is for both clients and servers, in both Windows and Linux flavors, with Solaris
files promised later today. The Panda o' Fire, who highly recommends upgrading as this
version is vastly improved, says that this is likely the last upgrade before ThunderWalker
II 2.0.

ClarificationBy the way, I want to correct a misconception I posted in the blurb about the Expert Quake for Quake II release yesterday
that the mod is geared towards configurability, which really distracts from the true main
emphasis of the patch which is to remove random factors to create a totally skill-based
game.

Quake Log
Parsers/Front-endsVersion 1.8a of GibStats II,
the log-parser deluxe for Quake II is out, offering fixes to bugs in HTML output in
version 1.8. The first release of Q-Start, a Quake front-end is on this (German language) page.

Turok 2 Announced -
Deathmatch Included[11:00 AM EDT]I saw on OGR that Acclaim has officially announced Turok 2: The
Seeds of Evil. Included in this planned sequel to Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
will be the most requested feature missing from its predecessor, multiplayer gameplay,
with support for deathmatch and co-op for up to 16 players on a LAN or on the Internet.
Here's a bit more:

According to Acclaim,
the engine will support real-time body impact physics and advanced real-time lighting
(using up to 10 dynamic lights at once for flickering firelight and water shimmering
effects). Turok 2 is shooting for an October release and will require 3D hardware.

Real Unreal
Release Date[10:00
AM EDT]One question more than a few confused readers from outside the US have
asked is "when is Memorial day?" since that was the vague release date mentioned
the Unreal goes gold press release.
Memorial Day weekend in the US is this weekend, and Unreal will be in stores as early as
Friday: Here is the text of the message GT Interactive sent to those who registered to
receive notice of the game's completion (seen on Unreal.Org),
that also reiterates the lack of details currently available on the status of a shareware
version:

You should start to see
Unreal in stores this Friday. Just in time for you to enjoy a long Memorial Day Weekend. A
limited quantity is being shipped this first week, so if you want to be first, we
recommend that you get out to your favorite store early.

The development team is
working on the downloadable demo as you read this. We'll let you know the moment it is
ready.

And this post to the Unreal
MegaMessageBoard by Mark Rein (also seen on the ORG)
gives a bit more on the deal with ordering Unreal:

We will probably start
taking orders for Unreal on Friday. We hope to announce our pricing and configurations
either today or tomorrow.

No you won't get Unreal
fastest by buying through Epic. The fastest way to buy it will always be to walk in a
store and pick up a copy. But you will get excellent value and fast shipping and, for the
initial orders (while supplies last) we're planning to offer one of the Unreal merchandise
items at an extra special price when you order it with Unreal.

More details to come.

Wide World
of Gaming - Commandos[10:00 AM EDT]Eidos Interactive has released a playable demo of Commandos - Behind Enemy
Lines (does the middle guy in that logo look like Moe Howard from the 3 Stooges to you
too?), a real-time strategy game that emphasizes combat tactics. The demo doesn't seem to
be on the Eidos site yet, but is available for download on PsychoNews,
where the screenshots look pretty damn cool.

Technology - The Need for Speed[10:00 AM EDT]

Glide 3.0
Times Three?Voodoo Unlimited Power has a couple of
posts 3Dfx's Brian Bruning that talk their upcoming version 3.0 of Glide that has the
potential to speed up video data transfers by as much at three times. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

We've seen a speed boost
of, according to Mike, 20 to 100 percent in framerates! And this is only a BETA of DX6!
Granted, it doesn't look like there are many changes in DirectDraw, but all the 2D DirectX
stuff mostly worked beforehand; it was 3D that needed help.

I look forward to his
having the internal build ready for us to play with at the end of the week; I'll have to
go snag myself a DX6 CD and try it out. :)

HR Free -
Zoom!Finally, on the subject of the need for speed, Monolith Web dood Paul
Butterfield made a .plan update
that tugs at the heartstrings: he never says anything newsworthy enough for posting. But
now he's changed all that, making the startling announcement that he has speed up
operation of Monolith's website by has much as 20%, by
going back to the drawing board, and reworking the site without all those inefficient
<HR> tags (horizontal rules). Kudos Paul, and thanks to Jeremy Williams for correcting my
HTML error.

New Doom
Legacy[1:25
AM EDT]Version 1.2 of Doom Legacy
is now available, adding a few new wrinkles to Doom, including support for up to 32
players and a console (I do find myself attempting to hit the console in Doom since
Quake's advent), free look (up and down), and much more. Thanks SoB.

Intel to
License PII's[1:25
AM EDT]Intel
unlocks Pentium II is an article that describes Intel's licensing of the Pentium II's
"P6 bus" to a third party, in a move that will spur competition in the processor
market, and possibly mollify the Federal Trade Commission, who have been looking at
Intel's stranglehold that market.

Out of the
Blue[1:25 AM
EDT]Decided I was getting too structured in not posting in the wee hours much
anymore (something that used to be the norm here), so decided to bust up a few patterns
before rust sets in, hence the return of the red-eye updates the last couple of days. I do
think I may reformat the whole days worth of news when I add stories in the morning, but
then again, I may not (look at me, I'm out of control).

In anticipation of the
retail release of Unreal, nearly 20,000 people have registered on GT Interactive
Software's Web site to download a playable demo version of the game while more than 200
Unreal fan-based Web sites on the Internet spread the Unreal "word" with screen
shots, game information and chat rooms. In addition, many of the sites are preparing to
host Unreal servers for multi-player tournaments and level editing contests.

Unreal will ship with a
fully functional beta version of Epic's Unreal Level Editor - an advanced 3D authoring
tool which provides a sophisticated, yet easy-to-learn, method of creating 3D environments
and objects by which players may create their own Unreal worlds. According to Computer
& Net Player magazine, "if this doesn't bring level editing to the masses,
nothing will." A feature-enhanced, fully supported and documented version of the
Unreal Level Editor with additional 3D content and a tutorial is currently under
development and will be released separately later this year.

Unreal will be available
at retail outlets nationwide on Memorial Day Weekend at a suggested retail price of
$54.95.

Robs the
RogueIt gives me a lot of pleasure to announce that a good friend and clanmate
of mine has made good in the biz. I want to congratulate Rob Selitto (AKA Robs) on the announcement that he
has been hired by Rogue Entertainment as a level designer for their just announced Quake
II mission pack, Ground Zero. Congrats to Robs, and to Rogue as well: our LAN
Parties' loss is their gain.

g.o.d.'s
PayneIt has been announced that 3D Realms has struck a deal whereby the
Gathering of Developers (g.o.d.), Mike Wilson's start-up game publisher will distribute 3D
Realms' upcoming 3D shooter, Max Payne. Here's an excerpt from the press release giving a
nice concise summary of the game (due for a Spring 1999 release):

Max Payne, a hardboiled,
fugitive undercover cop is being framed for the murder of his boss. A mission to
revenge his slaughtered family is taking him on a bridge-burning, rock n' rolling rampage
through the criminal underworld of New York City. Max Payne, a lone hero, goes up
against a horde of stone-cold murdering mobsters, drug-enhanced killers, bad cops,
professional assassins, corrupt politicians, and other diabolical masterminds lurking in
the city's heart of darkness in this intense 3D action shooter.

Unreal Gold Follow-upJust to follow-up on on the follow-up to the Unreal Gold story from earlier, I
have on good authority (meaning it's true) that GT Interactive will be issuing the press
release in a little while announcing that Unreal is gold, and is off to manufacturing as
you read these words. My understanding is that it could be in stores as early as Friday.

QuakeWorld
2.21 ServersQuakeWorld 2.21 is not out yet, but I saw on sCary's that some servers testing the new code are up
(you can connect using 2.20 clients). Here are the locations:

Ground Zero
ScreenshotsThe first two screenshots
of Ground Zero, Rogue's just announced Quake II mission pack are up on GameSlice (didn't they score the first Hexen II
screenshots way back when as well?).

Gore
ScreenshotsThe 4D Rulers page has a new
screenshot of Gore, the upcoming 3D shooter using the proprietary Amp game engine, and
news of the Gore team's E3 plans. There's also word there that they will be featured in
the July PC Gamer, including screenshots and an AVI.

More on Unreal Going GoldPlanetQuake
is reporting that contrary to Mark Rein's statement on OGR
yesterday, Unreal has, in fact, gone "gold" (into manufacturing
for distribution), claiming some "insider info from sources close to the
publisher." Thanks Chris Hill. To split hairs,
my own understanding (let's call this on extremely good authority) is that a release
candidate was delivered to GT yesterday and that if it's approved by their internal
testing team, it could be declared gold and start pressing as early as this morning.
Speaking of Unreal, it's the topic of the day on the Daily Dementia, where TC
talks with Stonage from Unreal Nation, about
the game in general, the plans for the shareware, and this darned "gold" issue.

Wide World
of Gaming - Dune 2000 TrailerDune2K.Com has posted the MPEG format trailer
(11.4 MB) for Dune 2000, the follow-up to the seminal Dune II (which paved the way for
about a bazillion real-time strategy games), currently slated for a summer release. The
movie runs about a minute long, and shows off gameplay, but mostly cutscenes, and there is
also a screenshot of the day feature on the site. If that all captures your fancy there's
also a contest to enter to win a copy of the game when it arrives. Thanks Moneypenny Publications.

Quake/Quake II Mods

Expert
QuakeVersion 2.1 of Expert Quake
for Quake II, the highly configurable customization is out, adding client options for
disabling color changes when underwater or when hit and viewpoint tilting when hit
(discussed further on the Expert page), as ell as support for changing settings on a
per-level basis. The main goal of Expert Quake is to eliminate random factors from the
game to place the ultimate emphasis on skill.

Rhino ModelA model called the Rhino that did not make it into the upcoming
Quake/Quake II deathmatch pack, Disposable Heroes, has been released as a plug-in player
model on The Coven Home Page.

New idGammaRivaZone has a new version 1.2a of
idGamma, the utility to compensate for the darkness of Quake and Quake II under RIVA
OpenGL. Thanks SemperFi.

*reviews

SEEDA look at SEED up on
PsychoNews takes a first look at this unusual sounding
game, described as a 3D action shooter.

Out of the BlueI've been playing around with BattleZone, and it's pretty damn cool (I
know, where have you been, Blue?). I never expected the integration between the strategy
elements and the action elements to be so seamless and natural, I guess I was expecting
something that seemed more like two ill-fitting parts slammed together.

Monday, May 18,
1998

Editing -
New QERadiantVersion 077 of the QERadiant
Quake II level editor is out, as an executable only, so you need version 072. Version 1.0
will be released soon which will include source code. Thanks WolfeN Ravages of Radiant.

FrogBotVersion 0.9 of the FrogBot, the AI playmate for Quake is now up on Frogbot homepage & Timm's rants, offering
a bunch of enhancements. There was promise of a QuakeWorld compatible version this time
out, but that's still in the works at this point.

3Dfx OpenGL
Beta 23Dfx has released beta 2 of their full OpenGL driver on this File Download page.
Gamers with 3Dfx hardware need not replace their OpenGL minidriver as it will still
deliver equal or better Quake/Quake II performance. Thanks Jason Keddie.

Quake II
Mission Pack #2: Ground ZeroActivision has announced a second official Quake II mission pack, titled
Ground Zero to be created by Rogue Entertainment. The add-on, slated for a summer release,
will contain 15 new levels, new weaponry and power-ups. Thanks Lorien from PsychoNews. Here's an except from the press release:

QUAKE II Mission Pack:
Ground Zero is published by id Software, distributed by Activision, Inc. and
designed by Rogue Entertainment. This same creative team created QUAKE Mission Pack No. 2:
Dissolution of Eternity that earned critical acclaim in Computer Gaming World and PC
Gamer. QUAKE II Mission Pack: Ground Zero, designed for Windows 95/98 and NT machines,
offers gamers a chance to blast new QUAKE II monsters in 15 thrilling new levels with new
weaponry, new units and new power-ups.

In this QUAKE II mission
pack, the wicked Strogg have developed an all-new threat to mankind, the Gravity Well.
Players will once again combat the Strogg hordes in their quest to free their comrades
trapped in orbit. However, gamers will have substantial "backup" at their
disposal with a slew of thunderous new weapons.

QUAKE II Mission Pack:
Ground Zeros vast new regions to explore include five new hubs with 15 additional
levels. Ingenious new power-ups provide novel means to survive and throttle the new
enemies that have emerged from the Stroggs' bio-vats.

Unreal
Gold? (Updated)OGR now has a report up from Mark Rein
of Epic MegaGames denying that Unreal has gone gold, but that it may happen any day now,
"as they currently testing release candidates." Thanks Shade). This in response top a report from EBWorld.com saying that Unreal has gone gold (as noted
when that post was reported, EBWorld has been both right on, and a bit off with these type
of reports in the past).

Zoid on
QuakeWorld 2.20 and 2.21Zoid made a
lengthy .plan update following up on the release of QuakeWorld 2.20, talking about
some problems, in particular mentioning that checksum testing for maps altered for
transparent water will be changed. He also describes what else is up with the next
version, which he hopes to release soon. Here's most of the update, but there is also a
section in there with common problems and solutions for 2.20 to check out if you're having
problems:

I've been working all
day on some of the problems in the 2.20 release.

As with any major
release, there is bound to be problems. I made some incorrect assumptions this time
around, namely how many people had watervised their maps. This has certainly been causing
problems for a lot of people.

I'm working on 2.21. I
hope to release it soon since there are some ugly bugs in 2.20 (such as random overflows
on servers sometimes). There will be a server upgrade and a client one, but 2.20 clients
and servers will be able to talk to 2.21, though I strongly recommend that everyone
upgrade to 2.21 when it comes out.

For watervised maps, vis
data is no longer included in the map checksum. The 2.21 server turns off checksums BY
DEFAULT. Server admins can enable map checksumming by typing 'sv_mapcheck 1'. This map
checksum is almost the same as before, except that vis data is not included in the check.
This means that maps that just has the vis/portal information changed (for watervis) will
pass the checksum test. Maps with hacked textures, removed walls, or waterhack will not.

Note, people believes
this gives an advantage to GL users, and normally it would. But the server can control
whether the GL user can turn on r_wateralpha (by setting it less than 1) or not using the
watervis server variable. watervis 0 means that GL users can not enable transparent water,
which levels the playing field. Quake was never really designed for transparent water and
neither were the maps originally.

So for admins that are
using servers for strict competition should enable sv_mapcheck and leave watervis to 0 so
that no one gets transparent water.

There was a minor bug in
the movement code as well. This bug was only really noticable on ctf4 up the steps to the
rocket launcher. You sort of bounced up the steps. This has been fixed.

There also seems to be
an issues where the servers are consuming much more CPU than before. I think this may be
related to some checksumming code I put in to defeat proxies. I'm changing these routines
to use a more CPU friendly algorithm that should help on the servers.

I'd like to apologize
for some of the problems with this release. I can't please everyone, but I try to make the
game as fun, secure and reliable as I can. QuakeWorld was meant to be a more net friendly
version of Quake--that was it's goal. This is why I spent the time integrating movement
code that matched the original Quake. I wanted to end the NQ/QW split that existed, since
it doesn't serve anyones' best interest.

Quake is a great game,
and one I love to play just like everyone else.

John
Carmack on Quake 3 CharactersJohn Carmack updated his
.plan about Quake's text character code, and how Quake 3 will handle keyboard input
differently, including full support for international keyboards and character sets.

Brian Hook
on Quake 3 CompressionBrian Hook's .plan has more on video compression issues in Quake 3, as
well as mentions of Forsaken, 80's music, and whiskey (sounds like a party to me!).

AirQuake IIVersion 0.20a of AirQuake II,
the Quake II arcade flight sim game is now available, in both Windows and Linux flavors,
and adding a new map. There is a feature on AirQuake II up on Converted2.com that includes a preview and an interview.

Action Quake2Version 0.91 of Action Quake2
is out. AQ2, based not so much on the premise that Quake II doesn't have enough action,
but that it should be more like an action movie (describing Q2 as more like a sci-fi
flick), adds features like damage based on where a player is wounded, and wounds that
bleed. The new release also adds two new maps.

Quake2 BattlegroundQuake2 Battleground is a Quake II
server program that offers many configurable admin options (IP banning, etc.), and also
looks to fill the role of the ClanRing mod in Quake with a remote administrative function
that allows users to configure the options on a server to set up matches.

This page has a Quake II
interactive screenshot cooked up by e_T that makes use
of the Live Picture plug-in like the
recently released Prey shot on the Apogee 3D Realms
Site. 360 degrees of panoramic, um panorama! Pan, zoom, pan and zoom, okay, you'll get
itchy to shoot something quickly. Consider it a deathmatch aphrodisiac...

Quake3.nu has a search function that checks
something like a million Quake-related webpages and .plan files for keywords you
specify...

Blue's Amiga News: To follow-up on a story from yesterday, here's an article on plans for a PowerPC
using the Amiga OS that CC (who sent the
link) describes as "an Amiga on steroids", and (who new there'd be so many Amiga
current events?), here's another article sent along by Tony Habib about the new Amigas...

A huge congrats to my colleagues over at our Jedi Knight superstation JediKnight.Net on the occasion of their
one-millionth visitor!

Out of the
BlueThe new Internet Websites
Top 100 sees Blue's News making it to the Top 10, up to #7 in a list dominated by
gaming sites (8 of the top 10, and 16 of the top 20). Big congrats to my bros over at Voodoo Extreme who jumped over 96 notches (and
me!), going from off the chart last week (they were "Miss Congeniality" as the
"Smash Website") all the way to #4, and kudos to OGR
who nailed down this week's top spot. Huge thanks to all that have voted for this site and
all the support you show all the hard working gaming sites of the world. If you want to
waste a little time helping support the improbable assault on the top you can use this link to vote for this
site (though it will be tough to keep moving upward at this point... maybe I should
start offering pornographic bribes like Billy?).

More On New
QuakeWorld and "Altered" MapsAfter a few emails, I've clarified this story a bit: ^Drag0n^ from QuakeWorld Central points out that if your Quake
pak0.pak, pak1.pak, etc., have been altered in any way, you will have to re-install the
original versions in order to play on unmodified QuakeWorld 2.2 servers since they will
check this as part of the efforts to prevent cheating. Alterations that can prevent
connecting include paks with re-vised maps for transparent water (the new QW inhibits
transparent water on the client end anyway). Likewise, if you are trying to connect to a
server that has the transparent water maps, then you must have the same modified
pak. Vispatch author Andy Bay and BFG Buddy Tony Fabris each point out the way to live
with this situation is to create a transparent pak2.pak and rename it pak2.bak when
connecting to non-transparent water maps.

New Classic
Quake MovieToo late for this year's Quake Oscars, but, I imagine a front-runner for
future honors, Apartment
Hunt (3.9 MB) is a new movie by the Ill Clan
that had me rolling with laughter. This humorous short for classic Quake features two
lumberjacks and their madcap misadventures apartment hunting. The humor, dialog, and
(musak) music are reminiscent of the elevator scene in Operation Bayshield, and the final
joke is way too obvious, but that adds to the fun. Highly recommended.

With the new QW
released, Zoid will be sending me those changes to be incorporated into HW. We'll then put
out a new version of HW to test compatibility and stability. After that, we'll release
probably what will be the final version of HW. Zoid also said he'll compile a few unix
ports of the server (only those flavors which run on Intel), and so unix versions will be
released along with that.

I've released QuakeWorld 2.2. I've
also added a couple new ports for this release: Sun Solaris x86 and Linux Alpha for
servers. The new QuakeWorld should work through various broken routers that previous
versions of QuakeWorld did not work with before.

QuakeWorld 2.2 is NOT COMPATIBLE with
old versions (2.1 or earlier).

The changes focused on security,
cheating and gameplay. QW2.2 plays as close as possible to the original Quake, but with
the benefits of prediction. My beta testers were very excited about the changes, and I
hope everyone will enjoy them.

Please note: Team Fortress 2.6
currently doesn't work with QW2.2. The Team Fortress team is aware of this and will be
releasing a small patch for servers ASAP.

As always, QuakeWorld is an
unsupported product. If you have any problems tho, you can report them to bugs@quakeworld.net.

Zoid's GamesCon TalkThe GamesCon page has NetShow video online (formatted for
three different connection speeds) of parts of Zoid's talks at their recent gathering in
Vancouver.

Amiga QuakeWord is that the AmigaQuake ordered through clickBOOM.com is now arriving in the hands of eager
amigers. Thanks [OCR]OPA. On the subject of this old
soldier that refuses to die (or even fade away), here's a story
on Gateway's plans to revive the Amiga Thanks Eric
Rose.

Alias FAQHave questions on how to put aliases to work for you in your Quake II
configuration files? Check out The Bind
where they have posted a new Alias FAQ to amuse and inform on the subject.

Classic CTFHere's a twist: Classic CTF
is a Quake II mod that attempts to recreate the feel of CTF for classic Quake and
QuakeWorld.

SkyBlazerVersion 0.5 of SkyBlazer is out, a classic Quake mod that creates a sport
where you must score by carrying a ball into a goal riding a hoverboard. Team organization
is not required: You compete with and against bots, and your teammate bots will even
follow your instructions (find live teammates you can say that about!). The files, and
more details, are up on The Lair.

Quake Name MakerThe QNM page has version 1.00 of
the Quake Name Maker. Don't even ask my why Tony over there is still bitching at me
publicly for expressing my opinion about the fun of fun names, I have no idea: I wasn't
trying to make an issue of it, and stopped right after he complained five months ago.

Siege GameSpy TabThere's a GameSpy Tab for Siege, the
teamplay mod for HexenWorld, up on HexenWorld.

Levelord on his CGW
ArticleLevelord updated
his .plan with a clarification of why a recent article by him on GameSpot UK seems a trifle incoherent (as he puts it
"The grammer is broken, there's no structure or flow, it sounds like I'm ranting
after a night's binge drinking...This was NEVER meant for public eyes and I apologize for
sounding like a complete fool."). What was posted was a rough draft of a CGW magazine
article he wrote for their June print issue, and the rough draft was by no means for
publication. Thanks Martin for helping me
straighten out this blurb.

Max Payne
Remedy Entertainment's Samuli Syvähuoko updated
his .plan with word on their Max Payne plans for E3, and commentary that there has
been no compromise in the development of MP of visual technology versus the game.

Editing

Talkin' 'bout Maze
GenerationVersion 1.1 of Quake2MazeMaker,
the maze generation program is now available fixing a few bugs and adding colored lighting
support.

If you can't of don't keep up with gaming news on a daily basis (chances are you aren't
reading this, but that's beside the point), The Quake Weekly is a new endeavor by a
host of sites to do a week in review format news page.

On the heels of yesterday's mention of big downloads and such, I received a couple of
recommendations for Net Vampire, a
freeware program that also lets you manage large downloads efficiently. Thanks cshaman. and another freeware jobbie called Go!Zilla. Thanks Tony Chan.

Out of the BlueHad an amazing time LANing yesterday. I want to urge anyone who has never
gotten together with some buddys and their computers and some pizza and some deathmatch to
give it a whirl. Those who have already experienced the chaos of such a get together
probably need no urging.

Hexen II WalkthroughA complete walkthrough for Hexen II is up on The Chaos Sphere, along with a find-it page to
locate the hints you are looking for.

SpecOps SLI PatchThere's a SpecOps patch up on SpecOps.Org,
among the features it adds are SLI support, Gamepad support and beta joystick support.
There's a second patch with new textures specifically for Voodoo2 users. Thanks Billy at Voodoo Extreme.

Oh Yeah -- MechCommander
DemoIn the future I will just point out that demos like are released, rather
than tending to only post them when there's a local copy available. I say this because I
haven't yet managed to post a local copy of the beast (over 100 MB) of the MechCommander
demo, but in trying to get it online, I realize never mentioned its existence, so, better
late than never (or something), I will point out the MechCommander demo is out, offering two missions
unavailable in the game. The demo is also available in stores (the store version adds an
opening cinematic), which is going to be the better choice for most: According to the SoftwareZone, download time for this file on a
28.8 modem during average conditions is 14 hours, 44 minutes and 26 seconds. That makes
this a good time to mention GetRight, a shareware
program that I've had recommended to me several times (I mention it now specifically
thanks to a reminder from Xenocide) that manages
downloads, including resuming where supported, scheduling, and many other powerful
features helpful in these days of ever larger files.

Disposable HeroesA new preview version of the Quake portion of the Coven's Quake/Quake II
deathmatch pack Disposable Heroes
is now available. The new preview includes the latest version of MAD (replaces weapons
with various types of rockets) for Q1, with an improved blast wave for the tactical
nuclear warhead, and rocket effects adjusted to match the latest Q2 version of the patch
(also available).

CorrectionI posted word of the new ATI OpenGL Quake Driver in the wee hours, but I
mistook the old one for the new OpenGL ICD beta (which was due out yesterday according to ATI's Software Arena). Sorry for the
confusion. Thanks Necromancer for the clarification.

etc.

The Quake II Storming Grounds is
holding a button promotion week, where they will create a button for your website. They
have a button exchange dealie too, so when you've got your button you can go and trade
buttons (collect the whole set!)...

Out of the BlueOff to LAN for the day with the Brothers Gib and our arch rivals/great
buddies in HSM, so no updates until tomorrow (unless something pops up before I leave).